Filmography: "Resolving Power" 2001
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THE STORY BEHIND THE FILM
The making of “Resolving Power” by Heather Denton
If you look up the term, resolving power, in film technical literature, it pertains to the ability of a lens or a film stock to resolve, that is, to reproduce details sharply. This is indeed a very “film” film, shot in traditional black and white, employing techniques of early film noir lighting, German expressionism aesthetics, 50’s 60’s industrial graphic style, minimalist acting from early Russian cinema, traditional hand drawn cel animation, shot one frame at a time on an animation stand, traditional optical printing for the special visual effects and traditional Steenbeck editing for post production. Perhaps the world has lost touch with matter, in this digital age, where fakeness and imitation prevails, instead of the real thing, this film, is the real thing.
Alienation and paranoia are themes that have been explored a great deal in cinema art; of course here one thinks of David Lynch, there are many others. The lead actor Rick Trembles is a cartoonist, from vague foggy dreamlike imagery that was described to him by the director he managed to draw an amazing yet simple storyboard, comprised of only 8 or so drawings. When funding for this film was requested, the project only made sense with the storyboard, we deal here with the world of the subconscious, the metaphorical the absurd, the insane.
The task was to articulate this world, with style. Location scouting began, the world inside is often the world outside, a chemical factory was found in the middle of a pool of petrol treatment plants, the haunting surrounding was like what was imagined in the storyboard, but in three dimension, for real, to see a living nightmare is something else, to capture the essence of it with this movie was the challenge. Other locations helped to carry out the vision, an electric plant with giant coils, and a school basement from 100 years ago with twisted ladders.
Director François Miron:
“We had about 100 thousand watts of lights, so when we received the dailies we were blown away, so much material to work with, a photographic delight, the surrealistic nightmare was there, but we wanted to push it further, we then decided to add special graphical effects, we needed lightning, so Rick drew the lightning, frame by frame by himself, I then undertook the task of combining the images with this rotoscopic animation, using old techniques of optical printing, there was only one place left with a ripple glass in North America, this was done on their printer. Then me and Rick decided that we needed some graphic animation, and he began to draw it, frame by frame, then he painted it, every single cel, this took him about 8 months of continuous work, then I did the final edit for the film, the final sound design for the film, when small segments of it were shown to world renown musicians Pete Namlook and Jasun Martz they were so thrilled with it that they almost gave us the rights to their music for free, almost. Basically this is what I did on this film; I produced it, I directed it, I wrote it, I shot it, I edited it, I designed the soundscape for it, I performed the optical effects, I shot the animation, I mixed the sound for it, I designed the title sequence for it. Was it worth it, no one knows. I saved the abstract map that Howard Chackowicz hands Rick in the second dream sequence of the film, when people ask me; ”what the fuck is this film about?” I pull out the map and hand it to them just like in the movie, when they open it I say, “It’s about that”.”
Montreal, spring 2001
Press
Resolving Power Review Offscreen Donato Totaro
Fantasia 2001 Report: Take 2
"Experimental filmmaker and Concordia university teacher François Miron tries his hand at, what is for him, a less abstract foray which is at once playfully philosophical and visually mesmeric, Resolving Power (2001). The film stars local musician/comic book artist/filmmaker Rick Trembles as an electrical worker who somehow zaps himself back into a primordial sludge (Trembles also provides the animated segments). Or something like that. No story here, no connect the dots symbolism, just a lot of plain weird post-Eraserhead imagery, curious wide angle aesthetics (love the early shot of Trembles walking up to and jumping over the camera), and resonating recurring images, or more accurately, figures and shapes (the optical black and white pattern that opens the film, the animated comic book style lightning and electric flashes, the black circles and lines on white paper, etc.). Somehow they all connect to the maze of the mind, or perhaps the beginning of time, when meaning was simpler and straightforward. Miron alternates between low-tech effects and smooth dolly shots of Trembles walking cartoon-like through the frame, past electric towers and post-apocalyptic landscapes. He gets stuck in a room that turns him into a negative image. The film ends with his body literally becoming electric (his eyes moving in electrical zigzags), finally "resolving the power" (Bradbury's Sing the Body Electric! anyone?). Awesome landscape and time lapse photography by Duraid Munajim(*) (whose wonderful Entropy played at Fantasia last year). In its own quiet way Resolving Power shows us the true face of technology: dirty, grimy, ecologically damning, all-encompassing, able to insinuate itself into our lives and take over our minds and bodies."
(*)note, the main cinematography for this film was done by François Miron, Duraid shot a few time lapse inserts
Donato Totaro , Offscreen September 30, 2001